Cira Centre South
FIRE PROTECTION SYSTEM
The fire protection system of a building is a vital component of a building that (hopefully) never has to be used. The fire protection system not only includes what will detect and put out a potential fire, but also the evacuation and safety of anybody in the building at the time.
To start off, all the fire protection system components are fed by the emergency power circuit, as these need to always be working in the event of a power failure or other kind of emergency. This includes all the smoke detectors and fire/smoke dampers in the duct work. These dampers work by, when a fire breaks out, closing the damper to prevent the passage of smoke throughout the duct work. These are found periodically throughout the ducts and anywhere the air distribution system passes through a fire rated wall (the fire rating of a wall is the amount of time that an occupant can remain safely on one side of a wall while a fire is on the other side).
In addition to the smoke dampers, on each floor is a network of sprinkler heads located no more than 10 to 15 feet apart that can be seen as blue stars on the reflected ceiling plans below. These are primarily located in the hallways of the residential floors and open spaces such as the amenities floor and the lobby of the ground floor. Smoke detectors are also located in the main elevator lobbies of the above mentioned spaces (marked with red circles in the figures below). No fire protection drawings or office RCP’s were given, so the fire protection system for these floors could not be confirmed.
Figure 1: Typical Residential Floor Fire Protection
Figure 2: Ground Floor Lobby Floor Fire Protection
Figure 3: Level 28 Residential Amenities Floor Fire Protection
To effectively transport people out of the building in the event of an emergency, two positively pressurized stair towers go up all 49 floors of the building, from the basement to the penthouse mechanical room and roof. The positive pressure prevents smoke from entering the stair towers and allows for a useable evacuation route for the building. In addition, these stair towers are surrounded by concrete walls that are part of the structural system of the building (the highlighted red walls in the figure below). While these do not have a designated fire rating, building codes mandate that to give a concrete wall a 4 hour rating, the thickness of the concrete must be at least 7” thick. Since the minimum wall thickness of the core is 18” thick, this will provide adequate protection for those within the stair tower. For walls of the stair tower that are not made of concrete, the architectural plans call for wall partition types that have three different tags: E12A, H12A, and H13A. While these tags are not located on the partition schedule of the plans, it can be assumed these are likely 2 hour fire rated walls.
Figure 4: Typical Stair Tower Layout